I will be moving from NY to California for a job that starts 3 months from now. I flew to California to finance a car from a dealership, but since I had not found an apartment yet, I had no california address to provide them to register the car. The best option they told me was to use my friend's California address for now. Therefore, my friend had to become my co-signer on the loan and she is now the primary borrower - the loan and the car are in her name, but I am the secondary borrower and I will be the one making the payments. We both will be starting at the same job in July and will have the same income.
What is the best way to remove her name in the future when I find a place to live and have a California address? Is that the best route for my credit score? If I have to retitle the car to my name, will that negatively affect my score? Will retitling also negatively affect the resale value of the car since it will show that the car has had 2 past owners instead of 1? I have a better credit score than she does (750 vs her 720). I managed to get a low interest deal of 1.9% at the time of financing the car because of a promotion - will this interest rate be kept if I retitle to my name?
Any advice to the best course of action would be greatly appreciated!